Learning About Collaborative Governance

Public Involvement

Some Rights Reserved by Web2Expo at Blip.tv Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, presented his idea of cognitive surplus a couple of years ago, but it seems especially relevant to the current push toward open government, most notably by the Obama Administration but also by public agencies at […]

This is a federal Department of Energy training film designed for DOE project managers. Because its purpose is real-world training, it avoids sugarcoating most dimensions of a difficult process. As a result, it’s one of the best introductions to the overall principles of community involvement that I’ve found online. Its main subject is the citizen […]

Video courtesy of Web 2.0 ExpoSF-’09 and O’Reilly Media. Peter Koht of the City of Santa Cruz, CA, describes the city’s online method for gathering public ideas about how to handle a severe budget crisis. The platform is uservoice. Similar to the IdeaScale system used in the White House Open Government Initiative, it allows users […]

Over the last few years, concepts like collaboration, the wisdom of crowds and collaborative networks have taken hold as innovative ways for involving large groups of people to help solve complicated public policy problems. However, the terms are often used so loosely that they’re in danger of being lumped together and, in effect, dismissed, especially […]

Andrew Rasiej, the founder of Personal Democracy Forum (PdF), gives an overview in this video of changes in politics and citizen engagement made possible by network technologies. As described online, PdF is “an annual conference and community website about the intersection of politics and technology,” especially the way in which “[t]echnology and the Internet are […]

In the previous post in this series, I discussed the concept of the public as a network comprised of interrelated groups, some focused on private interests, some focused on larger community concerns or institutions. The approach to public involvement that definition suggests is a collaborative one that draws citizens into the early stages of formulating […]

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Cross Collaborate is a resource to help build capacity in public policy collaboration. We offer practical information about collaborative methods for all those involved in shaping and influencing government decisions and policies.Read more on our offerings and approach on the About page.